Challenger
by Toriano.Flacko
Summary: Okay, here we go.Beast Boy's got some secrets from his past,now they're coming back to haunt him and the other Titans.But what does it all have to do with the fate of the world?
1. Awakening

It all began on a dark, stormy day… Well, kind of. The day hadn't actually _started_ particularly dark, or stormy, really, but that just goes to show ya how quickly things can change, now, don't it?

Anywho, it all began on a dark and stormy day… Okay, really, it was kind of the afternoon of said day, not to be implying that anything important had been happening earlier on… Maybe…

Fine, it all started on what was becoming the bleakest day of the year, and for more than one reason.

Actually--

LET'S JUST TELL THE STORY, HUH?!

Fine… It all started, bleak day, blah, blah, move on…

Okay.

The promising day had pretty much been ruined by the sudden downpour, but one soul in Jump City, near the bay, had been having some pretty bad luck even before the rain started coming down. Let's see why:

One, he finally had to 'accept' that the Terra look-alike, even if she had ever actually _been _Terra, didn't want to remember the things she'd done, or who she really was.

Two, after finally rejoining his friends to take down their newest enemy, Shifter, he quickly tired of the creature's games and went ape mode - a.k.a Beast-mode - on the morphing… Thing. This led to his friends trying to keep him from killing Shifter, which in turn led to his, er, it's escape.

Needless to say, this was bad.

Three, after re-tracking the albino morphing thing and eventually 'apprehending' it, they had gone back to the Tower. After a bit of senseless milling around, everyone else besides Raven and himself went out to check out the city.

Beast Boy had been taking a nap at the time of departure, which was why he hadn't automatically volunteered to go. However, considering his mood, he wouldn't really have wanted to go, anyway. One reason for that.

Last but not least, when he finally did awake, a mere hour after the others had left, he found somebody standing in his room. Somebody he knew from a long time ago.

Somebody he'd hoped to never encounter again.

(!)

He floated through nothingness. Ah, what a joy. No instincts making havoc with his short attention-span, no sense of thought to lead to depression, just… blissful ignorance…

_Hm? What's that? _A hazy blue glow lit up the path before him, what it was leading to. _Her._

"_You…"_

The sense of urgency in her voice automatically tuned into his attention. _Me?_

"_Yes, you… You are one of the only men to escape me, not once, but twice… Why do you run from me? Why must you keep us apart?"_

_What?_ He really had no idea what she was talking about, but already began to wonder. _Keep us apart? Never._ She was beautiful, that much he knew. One of the most beautiful girls -women, really- that he'd ever had the privilege of seeing.

He got the strangest feeling that he'd seen her before, as if he should recognize her. Immediately he pushed the thought aside as he felt her touch.

Somehow, she'd gotten so close in so little time. _Time? What's that?_ He knew he was grinning like an idiot, pleased simply by her presence. Still, something nagged him in the back of his mind. It didn't matter. _She _mattered, though.

"_But it's true… you are the only one who even tries anymore… Tries to stay away, that is…"_ Her ethereal voice carried such emotion he could feel her heartbreak himself, and almost hated himself for it.

"_All the others… They are gone, now. Long gone… We will be together, soon, though… Garfield…" _He cocked his head at this. What was she talking about? Why couldn't they be together now? Suddenly he felt a tug, and a violent one at that. That sense of forgetting something was back, and seemed to have physical force with it.

She reached out to him, as if still trying to bring him closer, and he found himself floating… backwards? No!

"_Remember me…"_

Beast Boy screamed as he woke up.

"So you're awake, now, are you?"

('_')

Dudes, don't kill me, this is just a tester chapter. If you like this beginning, PM 619 to my profile. If ye say death to this chapter, PM 666 to me profile. Honestly, people, I'm workin' here.


	2. The Other Prophecy

cRaZyMaN676 Reportin' 4 Duty!!

It seems that the first chapter is okay, seeing as there are no flamers... But it does seem kind of lonely with just one review... What does it take to get some credit for something?!

Disclaimer: Once again, the world should be thanking _me _for _not _owning the Teen Titans.

_Chapter 2: The Other Prophecy_

_Beast Boy screamed as he woke up._

_"So you're awake, now, are you?"_

A long, long time ago, a prophecy was made, depicting the Earth falling to a gem born of evil's fire. It was to be the portal, the door to this world for ninth devil, and would ultimately end life as humans knew it.

Hundreds of years later, an alien race was to come and defeat Trigon, taking Earth as thier own and saving whatever shred of humanity any being there had left. They would take the surviving humans and create a whole new world.

This alien race would have once been known as two completely different ones; The Azarathians and the Tameranians.

This did not happen.

Instead, Earth was saved by five super-powered teens and one mysterious antagonist, rumored to have once been a loyal servant to Trigon. This was also forseen, however, so another prophecy was made as a kind of back-up plan.

The gods sure are some conservative sum-twitches-with-a-b-instead-of-a 'tw', ain't they?

If the world were to make an early recovery from this fate, instead, a somewhat unethical "arranged engagement" was to take place. If the gem were to survive the Day of Reckoning(as they called it), higher beings, possibly from the Heavenly Plane itself, would volunteer to a) marry the gem in a somewhat forced engagement, believing that the world would end otherwise or b) be sent to kill her, to prevent another Apocalypse.

Or so they would believe.

Instead, if a Champion were not found to oppose them in the Nexus Tournament, or if the champion failed, those higher beings, whichever achieved their goal first, would no doubt end the world. Completely, entirely, and... Accidentally.

There would be no 'coming back' from this.

Luckily, this prophecy was not exactly completed. Since it would incorporate a large amount of chance and coincidence, it was left to the goddess of Fate to decide just what to do with it. Fate REALLY didn't care about the odds, having been on a slight losing streak at the time(Fate likes to gamble), so the prophecy faded into mere legend.

Years ago, a 'specialist' in legends discovered this forgotten foretelling after much research. He, too, would leave it to rot, seeing as it was deemed unfit for his tastes and purposes. Yet another found the prophecy after he, though.

The true rulers of the universe are known for thier notoriosity of screwing up at the last second and giving out second chances. Through the millenia, Champions of sorts have aided these beings in fixing what is broken, and breaking what should not be. Sometimes this involved destroying the universe multiple times, but eventually, the job got done, and if the Champion was still alive by the end of this, he or she got to have a wish granted for their troubles.

Strangely or not, a moderate amount of Champions survive more than once, and most of the times, choose to have all memory of the challenges and such are erased.

The challenges mentioned, of course, eventually came to be known formally as the Nexus Tournaments.

Even then, though, no one Champion was called on more than one time. This was due to most of them rejecting their next missions or choosing to stay in the Nexus Tournaments forever.

One Champion, however, has saved multiple universes, multiple times. Occaisionally he even managed to outsmart the gods themselves in their rulings. All he'd ever wished for, though, every time, was to go back to his beginning, and not be called on again.

This Champion will be called on. Again. For the... uhh... ninth time, is it? Yeah.

This champion's name is...

(!)

"Garfield!! Are you even listening to me?!" The blind, winged figure tapped his foot rapidly on the shifting floor. If he didn't hurry up, he wouldn't _have _a choice whether he wanted to go or not.

"Yeah, yeah, something about the Big Guys wanted to see me? Big whoop, they probably just wanna try their hands at annihilating me again." The bllind one sighed as he started kicking the wall instead. This was so frustrating!

"Logan!! Stop looking under your bed and pay attention! They said that-- what are you even doing?!" The green teen looked up and raised an eyebrow.

"What does it _look_ like I'm doing? I'm tryin' to get my sock back. Hold on _one _minute..." He dived under his bed again. The winged teen heard a crunch, a shrill scream, and a yell of victory before the green teen reappeared, pulling on something that use to resemble clothing of the sock variety. "Ha! Now, what were you saying, Ryan?"

The winged teen (whose name actually happened to be _Ryand'r,_ not _Ryan_) just stared at Beast Boy carefully for a few minutes before answering. "They said that they need you to help them again."

"Ah... Well then, no."

"You _do_ understand what I mean by 'they need your help', right?"

"Yes. They screwed up. _Again._" Okay, he would disregard the disrespect. For now.

"And you _do_ undertsand what that means, correct?"

"Yes. The multiverse is in danger. _Again._" Ryan didn't need eyesight to feel the storm brewing outside.

"You're gonna make some kind of lame joke of this somehow, aren't you?"

"Yep. Yep I am."

"You still won't even hear them out?"

"Ah, no." Ryan sighed.

"They said this would happen... Oh, well, I gave you a choice, looks like we're gonna do this the hard way..." He then turned back to the wall which was suddenly covered in symbols all arranged in a circle. He waved his hand and they began to glow. Gar took notice of this.

"Uhh, dude, what are you doing?" Was it just him, or did those symbols look familiar... His eyes widened. "Wait, no!"

(619)

Raven floated down the hallway, mumbling as she went to keep away the silence. Usually, most thought that she would've appreciated such a thing happening around the Tower.

This was not so. Where would they get _that_ idea from, anyway?

When everything was quiet, Raven knew that something was off about the situation. Although the silence could've been explained by the absence of most of her friends, it did _not_ explain why everything was so quiet when _Beast Boy_ was still around.

To give an example, it was so quiet, even the _silence _was loud. If that kept up, Raven _would _go crazy, just like she supposedly had when Starfire had gone to the future.

Not good. How this applies to Raven looking for Beast Boy to _make_ some noise, however, we don't know.

So she looked in the garage, one of the most obvious places to look for a possibly-depressed animorph. She had figured that he would probably try to go out on his B-ped, kind of figure things out for himself or something like that. Robin and Cyborg did that sometimes, but about halfway down to the garage she remembered that it was _Beast Boy _she was thinking about, however weird that may sound. Then she looked in the kitchen, guessing that maybe he would be there, cooking or making a sandwhich or something like that.

Before she even made it into the Common Room she once again reminded herself that it was Beast Boy she was looking for, not Starfire.

Raven never thought to look for him in his room; she couldn't remember one time when he had gone to his room when he was in one of his moods, except for when he'd been "growing up" during the whole Beast thing. Besides, the light had been off and she couldn't hear anything inside when she had passed by.

Once she had checked practically the rest of Titans Tower, almost frantic for some noise by now, she remembered something and smacked her forehead above her chakra. Of course! Usually he went up to the roof or down to the shore when he was bored or (as mentioned) depressed. So she went up to the roof since she could pretty much check both it and the rocks from there.

Of course, Beast Boy wasn't there, either.

"Where is the little green elf when you don't need him? In your face, 24/7!" The empath growled, entering the lotus position as yet another idea came to mind. "Where is he when you're actually looking for him? Gone without a trace!" Taking a moment to reflect that she and his pranks were most of the reason for that, Raven frowned before entering her trance. "Azarath, Metrion, Zinthos!"

(^w^)

Cyborg grimmaced, a tic forming on his face as the trio made their way back to Titans Tower. Why? Well...

After a dispute on what was the prime majority for each of them to get at the supermarket, of course Cyborg had inexplicably gotten stuck with the task of picking up his meat and the grass stain's tofu while Starfire instead searched for Raven's tea and her mustard while Robin got his stuff _and_ distracted the large amount of fans that had appeared out of nowhere at the store.

If he had been anybody else, Victor would have sworn that somehow the other two had cheated in the assignment of the objectives, as Star had called it. His computer half agreed with him, claiming that there was a five-hundred-to-one chance of him getting stuck with the tofu job. Nevertheless, sooner or later the three had achieved their goals somehow and it was just as they exited the check-counter that Starfire remembered something.

They had left an 'emo' friend Beast Boy and Raven back at the Tower. Alone. Together. Although the fact that _those two_ were alone together was reason enough to hurry back, the fact that emo and Beast Boy don't fit well in a sentence together was reason to worry.

Why is this? Well, why not?

Top-speed apparently wasn't enough as Robin and Cyborg both saw Raven's signature dark energy rise from the top of the Tower. Not even a minute later, the three were racing up the stairs, not sure what they were expecting to see when they got into the Tower. They just knew that most likely they would have to save somebody's life.

They were right on that part, but wrong about who's life needed saving.

(~''~)

The first thing Raven's soul-self noticed was a blinding white light emanating from somewhere above her. Which was strange, of course, because, well, why would there be this gigantic source of psychic energy appearing out of nowhere? And it couldn't be the sun because stars don't exactly throw out psychic energy and, like it or not, the sun is a star. Besides, it was cloudy outside.

Although it probably was to be expected, what with the kinds of things the Titans did daily; why wouldn't not add suddenly apparating _extremely powerful _auras to the list? After a moment she realized that suddenly apparating auras usually aren't comet-shaped or... heading straight for the roof of Titans Tower. Usually.

In the next few seconds, her soul-self took note of a few things before heading back into her body. For example; three slightly smaller auras entering the Tower from the ground, or rather, most likely Robin, Cyborg, and Starfire. Oh, and two compact auras emanating from, of course, Beast Boy's room.

Making all-haste back to her body, Raven quickly sunk down into the general safety of the Tower. Why? Well, it would figure that psychic energies can't harm psychic energies except when both sources are in, of course, purest form. Chances are that the larger aura would put a lot of pressure on the other, smaller aura, but no total obliteration, which is what would have definitely happened if Raven's soul-self had stayed in that form.

Wow, that's really complicated.

However, since she didn't stay in pure form, or whatever you want to call it, she didn't see when the alleged "comet of psychic energy" suddenly disappated a few inches away from where she had been.

A little confusing, but yeah.

(x=x)

"What? I don't got all the time in the world, you know."

"Oh, sorry, I didn't actually think I could stop you-- wait!"

"Come on, man, if you're just gonna waste time like this, may as well get it over with!"

"You mind _at least _giving me the basics first?" Noticing the unbelieving blank stare on Ryan's face, Beast Boy elaborated. "I never know what those god-guys are telling me to do! Somebody has to simplify it, don't they?"

The blind human-avian closed his eyes and shook his head, hands on his neck. "And _how_ many times have they trusted you to save the multiverse?" Beast Boy fumed.

"Hey, I got the job done in the end, right?"

"Right. Well, as you know, it involves the Nexus Tournament--"

"Why am I not surprised?" He glared, of course, blindly. Yet somehow, creepily accurately. Accurately enough to quiet the animorph, at least.

"As I was saying, it involves the Nexus Tournament, but this time, moderately different." He raised an eyebrow, expecting Beast Boy to jump in. He didn't, so Ryand'r continued.

"This time, you're fighting against supposedly random denizens of alternate galaxies for the hand of a maiden, the 'prize' of the tournament. Also supposedly anonymous." Still no interruption, but growling signified... what? Displeasure? "You have the option of picking a seven-warrior team, or cell, to work with, or letting the system pick randomly for you. The gods would also like to point out that there is one thing you should definitely know about before consenting; the Children of Hespirides are in on this, and they have no control over whatever they do."

Yep, he was definitely hearing a growl.

"Odds are, though, you're going to want to join this Tournament."

"Hmph, what makes you say that? Sounds like just another way for them to try to kill me. Oh, wait, that's 'cause it _is_!" Ryan frowned.

"Hey, this isn't a great job for me either, here! Telling people their world is gonna end if they don't step up and do something wasn't exactly on today's agenda!" He couldn't see, but he definitely felt the change in mood.

"What?"

"What do you think you've been doing all this time?! Playing a game?!" He might have adapted to being blind after all this time, but he still couldn't have seen the shushing motions he made in his direction. "You know what, screw this! They want you to fight for them, so...!" Too late, he realized something. Part of the ealier talking had been growling, but some of it wasn't. So what was it? It couldn't be something stupid, like an air conditioner coming on or something. It _had _to be the racing footsteps of Beast Boy's friends, thinking that they were coming to save him.

And of course, that sudden change in mood _couldn't _have been Beast Boy suddenly realizing what he'd basically been doing half of his life. It _had _to be Raven, sinking down through a portal of energy straight into the animorph's room.

Although he couldn't see it, Ryan could feel the heat of the portal-spell radiating from the wall it was on. He could feel the surprised stare of the empath behind him now. He definitely heard the pounding on the door now, Beast Boy's friends definitely with reason to worry. And although he couldn't see it, he could picture Beast Boy throwing open the door.

"Guys, get back!!"

Too late.

('_')

_Ah, yes, the cliffie. I'ma bastard like that:P_

cRaZyMaN676 Out!


	3. Overdue Intermission

**cRaZyMaN676 Reportin' 4 Duty!!**

_You know, I feel like I breaking a rule here, which is why I'm getting so few reviews: I'm either not adhering to the law of supply and demand or the fact that I'm rating my stories T is killing the crowd._

_Disclaimer: Once again, the world should be thanking me for not owning the Teen Titans._

_'In italics'_- the summary, then thoughts. Ah, you can figure it out.

Chapter 2 1/2: Overdue Intermission

_Although he couldn't see it, Ryan could feel the heat of the portal-spell radiating from the wall it was on. He could feel the surprised stare of the empath behind him now. He definitely heard the pounding on the door now, Beast Boy's friends definitely with reason to worry. And although he couldn't see it, he could picture Beast Boy throwing open the door._

_"Guys, get back!!"_

* * *

Over the millenia, many different speculations have been made about how everything came to be. The sun, the moon, the Earth, the planet, the stars, everything living and everything not; Everything. Some have made baseless rumors on the arrangement of things. Why and how things happen, what causes them to happen the way they do, when it can be predicted to happen again and so forth. More often than not, these rumors are and remain just that. Rumors.

One in a thousand of these guesses, however, are just _nearly_ there. Not quite right, but most definitely not wrong.

The ancient Greeks and the ones before them believed in thirteen major heavenly bodies, each with a different power to match their names.

Zeus, Lord of Winds, Clouds, and Lightning, King of the Gods. Uptight, just a li'l bit.

Hera, Goddess of Hearth and Home, Family, Wife of Zeus and Queen of the Gods. Very... family-centered. Supposedly. In theory.

Poseidon and Hades, brothers of Zeus and respective Lords of the Seas and the Underwold/Dead. Talk about your sibling rivalry.

Aphrodite, Goddess of Love and Adultery, born of foam on the oceans of man. Hmm... Bananas...

Hephaestus, God of the Forge, son of Zeus and Hera. Ugliest mug you ever would see, rumor has it. Clever, though.

Artemis, Goddess of the Hunt, the Moon, and Wisdom, daughter of Zeus and Hera, sister of Apollo. A multi-tasker became her.

Apollo, God of the Sun, Music, and Archery, son of Zeus and Hera, brother of Artemis. Kind of laid-back, easy-going.

Ares, God of War, something of someone-or-another and blah, blah, blah. Also ugly, but much more single-minded.

Hermes, God of Messengers, Thieves, Travelers, etc., etc.(he should really add God of Long Job Descriptions to the list), blah, blah, blah. Funny guy, that one.

Dionysus, God of Wine and All-Together Partying. Fun for a while, but a little less loose than expected.

And the list goes on with two more that the author will not go out of his way to name now, mostly because it's late, these thirteen actually have no real purpose for even being named in this story, and frankly, the author doesn't care, he just wants to get this show on the road.

After the Greeks, there were the Romans, who were pretty dang unoriginal in coming up with their own gods and goddesses to explain everything, so they pawned off on their predecessors, taking the precious time to differentiate by giving them all different names.

Shocking, what some people will do to maintain credibility. Really, it is.

Before the gods, there had been rumored to have been Titans; great, powerful, innumerable Titans, that ruled the Dark Ages of Man before they were overthrown by the Hundred-Handed Ones(their brothers, so to speak) and the gods( their children, so to speak).

After the gods, the was rumored to be one true God; whether his name be Allah or, you know, God.

All of these beliefs and speculations are true. And yet, at the same time, they are all un-true. Confusing, isn't it?

There's a lot of politics and claiming rights and general foolishness to go around, especially so since a little thing called immortality was discovered, but in the end... Well, there is no end result quite yet, for the End has not yet come, and even those with foresight cannot see it clearly. But... To be honest, leave it to say, keep an open mind and don't expect anything spectacular.

Expect something weird and somewhat exciting.

* * *

Somewhere in the backwater routes of the farce that is the newest time-space sector, four creatures that did not belong there in the first place pondered the exact same thought with varying levels of intensity.

_'What the hell is going on around here?'_

One can not really blame them for putting it so bluntly; after all, if anyone else had been wandering around a supremely white open space with no concept of up, down, left, or right for the past few months, and then were subjects to the above conspiracy, said person would have been driven insane or died at this point. By all means, these four should be given a sticker for sticking it out so long and sent home.

Besides, if somebody actually knew just where they were, and could hear them, and could respond within the next, oh, two seconds, they would really appreciate knowing. _Now_.

It was no small secret that, out of the four... not one had any idea of what their current location was. Three remembered having rushed home, thanks to Cyborg's "need for speed", to check on whether or not Raven and Beast Boy had killed each other in their absence. The metal man had not told him so, but the implication was... implied.

After taking note that they really needed to get some new elevator music, they had run down the hall leading to the animorph's room, only to meet Raven, who had just sunk down through a portal directly next to the aforementioned room, equally alarmed. The reason why?

Apparently from her rushed explanation, she had sensed excessive amounts of psychic energy radiating from the room they were now next to. Ignoring her opportunity to make a joke at Beast Boy's expense, she had instead brought to the others' attention the large amount of illegible yelling emanating from the room in question.

Then, of course, she had ripped the door off of it's hinges in a moment's notice, only to hear _somebody _yelling something at them before a giant, not-so-brilliant burst of light took over the hall by force.

Which leads to now. Now, where they were literally in the dark/blind as bats, and very cold.

"We are currently in the presence of omnipotent beings, one of which will now both explain things and avoid filling you in on the situation," a strangely familiar voice slightly in front of them announced in a bored tone, "So please, keep your senses from overloading at their sheer awesomeness until notified otherwise. If you do not wish to be vaporized, keep quiet for the remainder of your orientation.

"If you at any time wish for some say in what you are about to hear, too bad because as you may have noticed, you can not even move right now. If you have any questions, or are somehow _allergic_ to higher beings that tell you what you can or can't, will or won't, _may _or may _not_ do, then there's nothing we can do to help you. All clear? Good."

Again, altogether now... _What the hell is this?, _along with _Wow I really can't move_, and a favorite, _I can't feel my torso, _were among the thoughts of the four individuals in question. Which, if you haven't cared to guess by now, are in fact, Robin, Starfire, Raven, and Cyborg of the Teen Titans.

"Good to see that you finally took some advice and got a sense of humor, _boy. _Or are you still mad about what happened last time?"

"Aw, please, you're the god here, you tell me."

_'Please, whoever is talking, stop now... you are not making the sense...'_

"Insincere flattery will get you nowhere..."

"But truthful insults will get you everywhere. Is that what you're saying?"

"Huh. Didn't expect you to have a comeback, even by now..."

"What then, you're gonna kill me?"

"Don't tempt me. I can think of a few things to do with you, and they're all worse than death..."

"I'm sorry, I thought you said 'I can think'. Kind of lost you there, say again?"

_'I really need to stop surfing the sci-fi movie channel before recharging...' _

"You know, you might have grown a backbone over the years but that smart mouth never changes. What of your friends?"

"Leave them out of this if you want the job done. Speaking of which, what is it?"

_'... Oh hell no...'_

"You'll figure it out sooner or later. No direct interference, remember?"

"Right, right, _whatever_... so, when are we gonna get there?"

"Oh... now."

_'... Eh?'_

* * *

At approximately 5:12 a.m. Earth time, on a currently unnamed planet circling the second ring of a currently unnamed lunar system, an inexplicable rip opened up in what was once called the 'sky'. Less than a second later it closed, spitting out six figures bordering a speed humans knew as Mach 3.

Considering the average speed of things that randomly fell out of the sky on this planet, this was rather normal, seeing as said things usually came through what passed for an o-zone layer and were on fire by the time they came into view. Considering the fact that they stayed at this speed, this was rather strange.

Considering the consistency of the material these figures were made of , three of the six should not have survived going at this speed at all, and none of them should have survived the landing. Miraculously, though, they did, and what of the landing? Well, what should have resulted from that is best reenacted by, say, a giant rubber bullet being fired from a gun with the force of three cannons at a giant block of steel Legos (in theory).

In other words, even if they had all survived the impromptu speed-flight, they should have died upon impact anyway. Instead, they all came to a sudden halt less than a foot from skidding to certain doom, and six unconscious bodies thudded against the ground.

* * *

_Been a long time, e'nt it? Long time, long time... but Tor is not one to leave you hangin' just like that! Oh, and just so you know, this one was meant to be confusing, it's like re-nuking frozen pizza after it was already nuked before it got frozen! Except, you know, cool! Shutting up now..._

_UNTIL NEXT TIME!!_

**cRaZyMaN676 Out!**


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